Carleigh
Hager is a typical 25-year-old from Indianapolis. On the night of October 22,
2016, she arrived home from a wedding with her boyfriend Ryan and three other
guests. After what had begun as a perfectly pleasant evening, things were about
to take a very dark turn.

Ryan
had been drinking heavily and began acting abusively. He insulted Carleigh in
front of his friends, even suggesting that they would be welcome to rape her.
Carleigh was so distraught she left the group and went to bed, hoping her
absence would diffuse the situation. But eventually Ryan came in and started
brutally beating her.

His
friends tried to intervene, but he threw them out of the house and locked the
door. Luckily, they made the right decision and called the police. However,
before police arrived on the scene, Ryan's rage intensified. He threw her to
the floor and began biting her all over her body. Carleigh fought desperately
to get away, but Ryan was still able to inflict over 20 bite wounds and nearly
ripped out her tongue.

Fortunately,
the police arrived just in time to stop Ryan before he was able to inflict any
fatal wounds. They found Carleigh in shock and covered in blood and quickly
took her to the hospital. Doctors were able to re-attach her tongue but it took
three weeks for her to recover to the point that she could eat properly again.
The psychological wounds, however, took much longer to heal.

Carleigh
has since confessed that she had always lived in fear of her boyfriend despite
the happy life she had depicted on social media. Now she wants to warn others
so they don’t make the same mistake, “You have to tell somebody. You can’t be
embarrassed. You can’t be ashamed. You have to tell somebody because I almost
died and it can happen.”

Ryan
is currently in jail awaiting trial and Carleigh and her family can finally
breathe a sigh of relief. They have also started a GoFundMe page to help pay
for Carleigh’s medical treatment.

You
can watch the full story in this video:

Thanks
to the friends who called the police, Carleigh is still alive today. She's one
of the lucky ones, but there are many others who are not as fortunate.
Hopefully her story will encourage others who are in abusive relationships to
speak up and seek help before it's too late.